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Axis Bank on Thursday said it successfully closed the largest equity QIP programme in the country worth over Rs 4,726 crore, which saw participation from pension funds, insurers and domestic mutual funds.

The lender raised Rs 4,726 crore through the QIP route and Rs 811.47 crore from preferential allotment to five entities -- LIC, General Insurance, The New India Assurance, National Insurance and United India Insurance, according to a regulatory filing.

"The QIP (qualified institutional placement) programme was hugely successful having received significant interest from institutional investors from across the globe.

"The entire offering was placed with high quality investors that included large long only funds, pension funds, insurers and domestic MFs," the third largest private bank said in a statement.

The bank further said this offering led to a redistribution of the bank's shares with the weight of long term institutions rising significantly, thereby bringing down the promoters' holding to 33.5 per cent, other resident shareholders to 19.3 per cent and global institutions, including GDRs, to 47.2 per cent.

On successful fund-raising, bank's Managing Director and Chief Executive Shikha Sharma said, "We are happy with the huge response from global institutional investors. We are delighted that large global houses and long-term institutions like pension funds, insurers and MFs have reposed their faith in us".

"We believe that the success of this fund-raising signals the belief in the India promise and the renewed interest global investors have in high quality companies and issuers from the country," she said.

The QIP programme was managed by Axis Capital, Citi and JP Morgan.

Earlier this month, the bank reported a 22 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 1,347 crore in the December quarter driven by higher retail loans which rose 45 per cent and other income.

The bank's net interest income, grew 17 per cent to Rs 2,495 crore, while the fee income jumped 15 per cent to Rs 1,405 crore driven by a 35 percent spike in fee income from the retail business, and income from trading activities chipped in with Rs 159 crore during the reporting quarter.

Total income of the bank increased to Rs 8,580.30 crore during the December quarter, from Rs 7,206.77 crore in the year-ago period.